


My reflection in your eyes

by Effymaybe



Category: BLACKPINK (Band)
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:54:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25786918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Effymaybe/pseuds/Effymaybe
Summary: Jennie and Lisa share a wonderful journey prompted by the inexplicable connection of their souls. They laugh, they cry, and they love. As most love stories, theirs include a promising ceremony.
Relationships: Jennie Kim/Lalisa Manoban | Lisa
Comments: 16
Kudos: 107





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> As this fanfic is somewhat canon compliant, I feel the responsibility of saying that I do not claim, by any means, that anything of what is portrayed in it has happened or will happen in real life. 
> 
> Remember that shipping should be a fun, creative way of exploring creativity or spending a good time enjoying its results. Remember also that when we take a person of the real world and insert them in a piece of fantasy, we are selecting –maybe- the main features that we believe are highlighted in their personality and reshaping them to fit in our imaginary story. What happens in a piece of fiction, hence, should stay there.
> 
> Be kind and respectful of other’s boundaries, especially the ones of the people that we know are not in a position of claiming the need for privacy. We are going through hard times and it would be nice for us to do the utmost to bring a bit of peace to our messy reality.
> 
> I’m always thankful for every single one of you who decide to take a look at this random fanfic writer’s work. Sending you lots and lots of love.
> 
> Enjoy! This is pure trashy fluff. A friend suggested me to write this scenario and I planned to write a one-shot… 
> 
> It’s a bit longer.

Jennie stares at her own reflection in the mirror as her fingers tap against the wooden table in front of her. She brings them up to pull at the strands of her hair and then down again, reminding herself of the three hours that her stylist spent working on her hairdo.

It looks great, actually, chocolate, shiny curls falling delicately on top of her exposed collarbones. Her makeup is on point too, elegant and subtle but fierce at the same time, showing all the sides of herself that she has learnt to love with the passing of time. 

Jennie bites her lower lip and taps on the table more insistently. Her gaze runs from the white flower pot contrasting with dark brown wooden, to the lights of the mirror, to her eyes again as her thoughts race without mercy.

Is it enough? Does she look beautiful enough? What if she goes down the aisle with her heart bursting against her chest and then there is an empty space…

“You look beautiful, Jennie”.

The brunette turns her head quickly at the affectionate, teary tone of her best friend, who is looking at her as if she was letting her child go to school on her own for the first time.

“Thanks, Soo”, she swallows, trying to overcome the nervous lump in her throat, “is everything okay? I mean, the setting, and the people, and…”.

“The place is gorgeous, your mom is small talking with every single guest, and your love is just as anxious at you, also looking surprisingly good”.

Jennie lets her shoulders relax, a small smile growing in her face as a warm rush fills her chest.

“Everything will go perfectly, Jen. This is your happy day. Make sure to enjoy it thoroughly”.

The tallest brunette opens her mouth to answer, still in a sweet dizzy spell, extremely thankful for her friend’s comforting words, but a loud squeal interrupts her.

“Oh my god, you look amazing! Look at you! Gorgeous! Oh, I’m so happy”.

Jennie giggles softly as Rosé brings her hands to her own face, visibly tearing up. 

“Thanks Rosie. I’m glad that you feel that way”.

The silver blonde takes some quick steps to embrace her friend’s neck loosely, mindful of the hours and hours of production, and starts sobbing affectionate words as she stares at Jennie through the mirror.

“I can’t believe that this is happening. After so many years… but I knew. I knew. We both knew, Jisoo, right? It was like written in the stars”.

The shortest brunette chuckles and puts her hand on top of the blonde’s left shoulder.

“Meant to be, indeed”, she concedes, and lets a comfortable silence extend for a moment before speaking again, “I have to check on the fourth pink, though, for what I know she could be hanging on the chandelier already, or cussing somebody off. And I thought that Jennie was going to be the difficult one”.

The tallest brunette giggles at Jisoo’s words, her cheeks covered by a pinkish heat, and squeezes Rosés hands so as to anchor herself.

“I was difficult too”, she mumbles, almost apologetically. 

The shortest brunette gestures with her hand nonchalantly, but leaves the room with a wide smile.

“Yes”, the silver blonde murmurs, “but it’s your wedding day. You have every right to be. Now show me that stunning dress.”.

-

Seven-year-old Jennie sits as straight as she can in the green plastic chair with her legs barely brazing the ground. She’s looking intently at the folded paper under her tiny fingers as she traces new lines, cat-like eyes absolutely focused in the process.

“What are you doing, Nini?” her father asks. Jennie stops to stare at him only for a second before going back to her crucial task.

“A paper plane”, she explains, her voice severe, “This one _will_ fly”, she adds, and crunches her small nose at the memory of her previous failed attempts. 

He chuckles slightly, but presses his big hand on top of her shoulders in a sign of support.

Jennie keeps working, the pad of her ring finger running through the smooth white surface, and she’s only brought to the reality of the café they are sitting at by her mother.

“Do you like Thailand, Nini?”

The brunette full stops this time, her plump cheeks lifted in a big, gummy smile.

“Yes!”, she exclaims, and moves her legs back and forth, “It’s so pretty! It’s fun!”

Her mom smiles in endearment, and her gaze shifts to Jennie’s father.

The girl watches as her parents share a look, brief but intense, their eyes sparking for a second as they take into each other. 

It makes Jennie slightly uncomfortable but at the same time inexplicably happy. It is a stare that they only save for each other, like a secret, like something they don’t need to say with words.

The girl doesn’t need further explication. She knows that that’s what her parents refer to as love. She feels in her chest, too, but it’s different. She understands that it’s different.

Jennie’s mind shifts, then, always youthful and busy, from her parents, to her paper plane, back to the necklace her father bought for her mother just a few minutes ago from a local seller.

“What does your necklace say, mom?”, she asks, and watches with slight disappointment as a waitress brings food to a table that’s not _theirs_ . 

Jennie’s mother brings her hand to the rounded-rock necklace, a slight blush covering her cheeks, and smiles softly before explaining.

“Soulmate. This is Thai”, she murmurs, and runs her finger on top of the foreign script.

The girl hums, brown eyes staring at the shiny item, and realizes that she doesn’t exactly know what Thai is but she knows that it looks beautiful. 

“And what’s a _soulmate_?”, she asks next, and looks at her paper plane once again to finally finish it.

“A soulmate is a… person. A person that you are meant to love very much”.

Jennie doesn’t look up, but she listens with careful attention. She grasps the blue pen that her father left on top of the fragile table and scrunches her nose again.

“So, dad is your soulmate?”, she asks.

She hears faint giggles –the ones her parents only let out in very special occasions or when they drink a bit too much champagne on Friday nights.

“I want to believe so”, her mother says, then, her voice light and funny. 

Jennie nods, grasping the concept, and fixes a wild strand of her chocolate hair that blocks her view before working on her crucial project once again.

A few seconds later she lights up, holding the paper plane up in her head and letting a cheering sound escape from her mouth.

“Oh, did you finish?”

“Yes!”, Jennie exclaims, and shows the product of her hard work proudly, “It has a name, like granny taught me”.

Her father looks at the foreign script messily drawn against the clear paper with an incredulous smile.

“Did you name it _soulmate_?”

“Yep. It is Thai”, the girl concedes, and her feet move in excitement above the floor once again, “and I’m sure that it flies”.

Jennie’s dad nods this time, understanding his daughter’s sheer excitement, and lets the tiny brunette appreciate her own masterpiece.

“Nini, honey, you can try it later. The food’s coming”.

Jennie widens her intense eyes as she catches the sight of the waitress holding a stray with the dishes they ordered. She stops moving her legs but puts her paper plane on top of her thighs very carefully.

She can play later.

-

An hour later, Jennie already feels the afternoon sun heating up her skin. Her fingers tickle with excitement, and her stomach is already more than full. She stares at the almost empty park just in front of the café and her eyes shine with enthusiasm.

“Mom”, she murmurs, and grasps the paper plane in her tiny fingers, “can I go play to the park there? Please…”.

Her mother stares at her and then at the place, scanning it to detect any unsafe zone. When she is satisfied with the result, she turns towards her with a mildly severe stare.

“Okay. But just for a few minutes”, the brunette gifts her a quick grateful smile before finally letting her feet touch the ground, “and be careful, please!”

Jennie shouts in agreement as she runs to the grass, her chocolate hair flying with the wind. The weather is kind of hot and heavy, really, but the girl couldn’t care less. She’s happy, and the foreign air makes her feel excited, and she has a brand new paper plane made all by herself clutched in her hand.

She stands at the top of the tallest concrete stairs, takes a deep breath, and finally tests her creation.

It works perfectly.

The paper plane – _soulmate_ \- takes off with a slight breeze, maintains itself proudly in the air for a few seconds, and then lands in the dirty ground with absolute grace.

Jennie exclaims in glee, smiling from ear to ear, and plays for a while, running here and there under the sun.

After a while, her wild mind has already focused on something else, on the purple leaves of a tree that she has never seen before, on the birds searching for bread crumbs on the floor, on the beautiful sky-blue mattress above her.

She sits on the stairs for a second, finally feeling tired, and puts her paper plane besides her tiny body.

Then, a soft voice calls her from the café.

“Nini, do you want an ice cream?”

Jennie’s cat-like eyes light up immediately, and her legs start working almost on her own.

The brunette approaches her family, already leaving the place, almost in autopilot. Her paper plane is forgotten, a bit crumbled now, rays hitting on it on top of the stairs.

-

Jennie sighs heavily as she practices the same movement for the hundredth time in front of the massive mirror. 

It’s not perfect yet, and if it’s not perfect it means that it’s _wrong_ , and that it will result in a bad grade, and in a frown, and even in her getting harshly dismissed by the company. 

She blinks away some frustrated tears and stares at the clock. 1 am. All her fellow trainees –better prepared- have already left the bright practice room for some hours of well-deserved rest. Jennie, on the other hand, with her legs shaking due exhaustion, is still struggling with her steps, feeling demoralized due to her own limitations.

She sighs heavily again and brushes the palm of her hands roughly against her face. 

_One more time_ , she thinks, and tries again without music, almost getting throughout the whole performance earing herself a hesitant _passing_ , when the doors of the room open widely.

Jennie stops dead in her tracks with her heart racing against her chest, terrified by the unexpected intrusion. She only calms down when she catches the sight of a tall, frozen figure behind the door.

Doe eyes stare at her widely, and Jennie almost smiles as a reflex. The short-haired girl suddenly breaks out from her trance and bows low, her cheeks burning in shame.

“I’m so sorry!”, she blurts out in broken Korean, “I thought that there was nobody here”.

The shortest brunette tilts her head and takes into the girl. She recognizes her as the new trainee, the fourteen-year old dancer. She has heard other girls talking about her, about the fact that she is from Thailand and the language barrier prevents her from communicating with other trainees, and Jennie feels her own heart clenching in sympathy.

“It’s okay”, she whispers then, her voice mellow so as to calm her down, “It’s quite late”.

“Yes”, the tallest girl answers excitedly, nodding in absolute agreement. She visibly struggles for a while, and Jennie knows that she’s desperately looking for the right words. It makes her want to hug her tightly. “I… come late. I like the room… if it’s empty”.

The shortest brunette gifts the trainee a soft smile as she gets closer to her. She hesitates only for a second before speaking again. 

“Me too”, she answers in English.

The girl looks at her with her shiny eyes wide again. Speaking to her in any other language but Korean is firmly against the rules.

“We can practice together, if you don’t mind. I heard that you are the best dancer here. Maybe you can even help me with some steps”.

The tallest girl’s expression is struck by a spark, somehow brighter than the LED lights above them, and Jennie feels a comfortable feeling settling in her chest. 

“Yes! I would love that”, she exclaims, and shows a toothy smile. “I’m Lisa!”, she adds happily.

Jennie wonders just how much energy vibrates in her lean body.

“I’m Jennie”, she answers nevertheless, and her previously beaten legs start feeling a lot lighter. 

“I know”, Lisa answers, and moves just besides the shortest girl, just at the center of the room. She stares at the mirror pensively, her limbs immediately adopting a position that can only be described as damn gracious and clearly professional. 

Jennie gets in position again, too. An unspoken agreement flows through both their minds. They will practice the whole choreography first. 

“Yeah?”, she asks curiously. She watches as the young trainee turns towards her with an almost surprised expression. 

They take into each other for a second, sharp and open, dark and bright, feeling and mind, and an almost too intense feeling springs from their chests.

“Yeah”, Lisa answers when she finds her voice, “You are Jennie Kim. The coolest trainee. The star”, she answers simply.

The shortest girl blushes profusely, but makes an attempt to seem composed.

“I don’t think so”, she shrugs, and turns towards their reflection again. Lisa is sporting that wide, charismatic, _adorable_ smile again.

“You are”, she answers simply, “I’m so glad to be practicing with you”.

Jennie doesn’t answer out loud. She simply takes into the buzzing jolt that tugs in her stomach due to the pure nature of the compliment and turns on the music at the lowest volume she can. That day, after being almost intoxicated by Lisa’s repertoire of giggles, she decides that she wants to keep her as close as she can.

-

Lisa lies on top of her bed with crossed arms and a somber expression.

She should have done better.

She should have worked harder, pushed a bit further, spent a few more hours sweating and bleeding in the practice room. She should have learnt to speak better, find the right angles for her pictures to be perfect, smiled big even when she didn’t want to.

And maybe, if she had truly focused her inner flow of energy properly, their group would be debuting next week.

Lisa feels tears prickling in her eyes as the uncomfortable knot in her stomach tightens. 

She’s mentally and physically tired, but her body refuses to let her rest. It’s Sunday, and she should be outside enjoying the tickle of the spring sun, but feels unworthy of it. The thought of going back to practicing, however, increases the pounding in her wounded legs.

In an act of pure sadness, Lisa searches on her phone for a picture of her parents. Her pouted mouth becomes more prominent, her fingers hovering on top of her mother’s eyes as she wonders whether to make the call or not. 

It will worry them. Lisa has not been one to express her cloudy feelings freely, often times choosing to bottle them down until she could let them out at the very moment she managed to be alone. It’s a reflex act, learnt in training, smiling throughout happiness, anger, sadness, fear. She has been instructed to search for a faux spark in her eyes, to move her hands animatedly even when she’s missing the solitude of her room. 

Lisa considers that she should be able to tell her parents how she truly feels about having gone through harsh performances and harsher critiques for more than four years without receiving a completely positive feedback not even once.

She closes her eyes and steadies her breathing, the screen of her phone going black.

It’s difficult to break with imposed habits. Her parents would worry. Her mother would cry. Her father will say nothing but remain awake until well-advanced the night.

Lisa cannot do that to the people she loves, not after receiving their unconditional support.

She puts down her phone and runs her fingers through the soft fabric of her blanket covered in little bunnies. She thinks about making use of the unusual silence to sleep for a while, taking advantage of the fact that almost all trainees use their free day to spend time with her family. 

With a yellowish light illuminating her profile, Lisa closes her eyes, only to open them again quickly due to the sound of the room door opening slowly.

She straightens, curious, and smiles big immediately at the sight of the cat-eyed trainee.

“Hi, Jennie”, she greets her, and the ache of her heart eases when the shortest girl gifts her an almost shy grin.

“Hey, Lis”, she answers, and walks towards her bed with her head slightly tilted.

Lisa finds herself thinking, for those short seconds, about how gorgeous the girl looks with her light dress contrasting with her rich, dark curls. Before she realizes, Jennie is already sitting on her bed, giving her a soft look.

“How are you?”, the shortest brunette asks her, and Lisa can only stare at her stunned.

“I’m… I mean… fine”, she stutters, and notices quickly that her hesitation displeases her groupmate.

Jennie purses her lips for a second, her sharp eyes growing darker, and the tallest girl feels somewhat guilty.

“You know that you can talk to me, right?”, the oldest girl murmurs, and lets her fingers search for Lisa’s hand.

“I know”, the girl can only answer, then, as she feels her throat tightening, “It’s just… I don’t know. I don’t know _how_ ; I think”.

She feels absolutely lacking, but a faint light returns to Jennie’s intense stare. She stares at her for some extra seconds, and Lisa feels blushing before her groupmate’s striking beauty. Everything, from the curve of her forehead to the angle of her chin seems absolutely unbelievable, and the dancer considers that there is no way that their group won’t be successful as long as Jennie stays with them. 

“It’s okay”, the shortest girl mumbles finally, her voice soft and low as she intertwines her fingers with her friend’s. “It’s okay not to know right now. Take your time. Just know that I’m here for you, yeah? Whenever you feel like it.”

Lisa nods, feeling caught under a dizzy spell, amazed by her groupmate’s ability to read her so easily.

“Thank you so much, Jen”, she can only murmur, her eyes watering as a warm feeling frees her aching chest, “How are _you_? I mean…”

The shortest brunette scrunches her nose in an expression that Lisa has seen over a hundred times and still finds it ridiculously adorable. 

“I’m pissed. We were ready. We are ready”, she states, her chin lifted, “They are just… them. I swear we can never get anything nice”.

The tallest girl watches with increasing sorrow as her groupmate’s expression grows gloomier, her gaze turning outcast with the force of the sudden emotion.

“We will debut, Jennie”, she blurts out in an attempt of finding the hint of a smile, “We will. We just have to wait”.

The shortest girl looks at Lisa right in the eyes.

“And we will show them”.

The dancer nods, wrapped up in their natural connection, and without even thinking about it, she brings the hand grasping Jennie’s to her lips, planting a soft kiss on the girl’s knuckles. Something shifts then, a spark in the shortest brunette’s features, stubborn clouds making the room darker. 

Lisa stares at the girl in a daze, wondering on the heat coloring her cheeks, terribly worried about having made just another mistake, having ruined something that makes her so unbelievable happy. 

However, just like that, Jennie gifts her the best, most radiant smile that Lisa has ever seen. It makes her grin too, almost as an impulse, and a moment passes in which they just take into each other as if meeting for the first time.

“Do you want to go for an ice cream?”, Jennie suggest, and the tallest girl doesn’t even have to think about it. With her fingers still locked between the brunette’s, Lisa stands up from her bed and drags her across to the room, earning herself some enthusiastic giggles.

“Yeah! With sprinkles on the top!”

Later, when they are finally soaking in the afternoon sun, Lisa asks Jennie between scoop and scoop why she is not hanging out with her family.

The shortest girl stares at her for a second, her soft cheeks lifted in a smile as she bites the cone of her snack.

“I wanted to be with you”, she answers simply.

Lisa wants to kiss Jennie’s hand once again.

-

Jennie knocks on the thin wooden door with her knuckles.

She keeps it soft, afraid of upsetting her friend even further.

When she receives no answer, she puts her ear against the wood. As broken sobs resonate muffled from the other side, the brunette feels her heart breaking.

Lisa deserves, so, so much better. Someone who can make her brightest smiles break out with the melancholy that sometimes clouds her soft features, someone who is willing to buy her all the candies that she stores secretly in her night table, someone who wouldn’t think twice before catching her sporadic tears with soft kisses.

_It wouldn’t be that difficult_ , Jennie considers.

Instead, Lisa got a cheater.

As the sobs become louder, reaching the brunette’s heart and squeezing it painfully, Jennie tries once again.

She knocks gently and modulates her voice to make it sound as mellow as possible.

“Lis, please”, Jennie squeezes the handle of the plastic bag in her hands, “let me give you some food and water”.

The crying sounds stop for a second, and there is a moment of uncertainty in which the brunette doubts whether to stay or to leave, but then, she listens to heavy steps approaching slowly. She’s mindful of breathing steadily a few times –she’s so angry at that fucker, so damn angry- before her friend opens the door. Lisa needs bubbles, flowers, and cuddles, and Jennie is willing to give her all of that, even if the fluff does not match with her bad girl vibes, even if her deepest instincts are begging to hunt that boy down.

When she catches the disheveled sight of her friend behind the door frame, the shortest girl feels her chest aching again. The dancer looks so, so tired, purple spots darkening her usually sparky eyes, her blonde hair hastily pulled up in a messy bun, so visible vulnerable that Jennie wishes she had brought a big blanket with her as well.

Lisa takes a look at her, clearly embarrassed, and Jennie is almost sure that the girl is going to take the provisions and disappear inside her sad hideout. She offers her the bag, wordlessly, her jaw tight in desperation, and her friend takes it unsure. However, instead of running in, the blonde looks at her again.

“Do you want to come in?”, she asks, and the brunette fights the impulse of gathering her exhausted body inside her arms.

“Of course, Lili”, she answers, and enters Lisa’s room along her.

A moment of long silence follows. It’s not specifically unpleasant, especially because Jennie can see the way Lisa’s doe eyes find the flash of a light at the sight of the homemade dinner that she prepared herself a few hours ago. The blonde also chugs at the bottle of water, clearly thirsty, and when she finishes, Jennie can swear that her shoulders seem a bit less hunched.

They sit on Lisa’s bed, still embedded in a quiet atmosphere, their features almost unrecognizable due to the planned lack of lighting. The brunette can still see her friend, though, her soft nose catching in the smell of food, her eyes watering again, moving from the cardboard box in her lap, to the almost empty bottle of water, to her friend’s cat-like eyes.

She stares for a moment, and Jennie almost starts to cry, too.

“Thank you so much, Jen”, the blonde murmurs in a feathery sigh, and the brunette is quick to press the palm of her hand on top of her friend’s thigh.

“It’s nothing, love. That’s what I’m here for”.

Lisa puts a piece of kimbap in her mouth and lets out a high whine.

“Is that bad?”, Jennie jokes, and the comment earns her a watery, muffled chuckle.

“It’s delicious”, the dancer tells her after swallowing, and she blinks a few times, desperate to keep her emotions under control at least for a few minutes. “You did it all yourself?”

The brunette scrunches her nose, moving closer to her friend, letting her hand trace soft, comforting circles now against her back.

“Of course, who else”, she answers back, and grins as her groupmate keeps eagerly eating her dinner.

Jennie is glad that she’s hungry. She’s glad that she looks, even if still not as bright as usually would, significantly better. She’s glad that she let her in. She feels lucky.

Lisa looks at her friend once again, her gaze soft.

“You didn’t have to, Jen”.

The brunette hums lowly.

“I wanted to. You deserve the absolute best”.

Lisa grins, beautiful and broken, her cheeks know more colored, her entire expression more alive.

“And your food is the best, isn’t it?”

Jennie raises both eyebrows in a playful gesture.

“Of course, darling… at least the best we can get in the dorm”.

A light chuckle illuminates the shadowy room, and it’s followed by a comfortable, hopeful silence.

“I will get over him”, Lisa murmurs after some seconds, “before we debut. I’ll work the hardest. I’ll be the best I’ve ever been”.

Jennie’s chest fills with pure pride, and she can’t help but to squeeze her friend’s shoulders in a sign of agreement.

“You are already fantastic, Lis, but I’m glad you feel that way”.

Lisa grasps Jennie’s hand to pull her arm more comfortably around her own shoulders, putting the food away and letting her body cuddle against the warmth of her companion. It feels nice, fitting and wonderful, and Lisa’s aching diminishes slowly the more the sweet scent of expensive perfume reaches her nose.

She closes her eyes, content after days of anguish, after feeling betrayed, after a spiral of thoughts doubting her self-value. Now, with her groupmate pressing her forehead against her cheek, Lisa feels powerful again, ready to fight her pain and return to a healthy, positive headspace.

“Can we watch a movie?”, she asks her, “and let some light in”.

She feels a heart-warming kiss pressing against her flushed cheek before Jennie’s warmth abandons her for a moment. 

“Sure, babe. Wanna call the girls?”, the brunette asks, opening the windows, the sun finally making its way inside the room.

“Yeah”, the blonde answers easily, “I miss them”.

When she catches the sight of Jennie gifting her a rare gummy smile, Lisa stands up too.

She feels invincible.

-

Jennie giggles without control as she rushes past a leaf-covered road, her arms open in a happy gesture illuminated by the golden autumn light.

Just behind her, Lisa’s long, quick steps follow closely, and the tallest girl’s laughter reaches the brunette’s ear like music. 

When she diminishes her speed, her legs growing tired despite the blissful buzz still spreading throughout her body, steady arms wrap themselves around her waist, and, in a moment, her friend’s sweet scent delights her senses.

“Gotcha, Nini”.

Jennie has to make an effort to stop herself from displaying smile, and replaces her joyful expression with a fake, prominent pout.

“Your legs are longer!”, she complains, but puts her hands on top of her friend’s lean arms nevertheless.

The blonde against her body chuckles once again, looking at the brunette’s pouted moth for a second before drifting her gaze to her sharp eyes.

“You are the one who suggested to play tag!”

She lets go for a moment, but keeps her friend close to her body by embracing her shoulders loosely. From that angle, keeping the shortest girl by her right, Lisa can see her dark hair contrasting with the ochre tones of the resting trees.

_It’s beautiful_ , she thinks, somewhat breathless.

Just at her side, Jennie turns around to watch the yellowish spectacle as well, considering quietly, as a thought deeply engraved in the very back of her conscious, that there is a melancholic beauty in the perishing of a phase.

“Wow”, she mumbles, then, with Lisa’s soft breathing almost caressing her cheek.

“Wow indeed”, the blonde murmurs, and Jennie can’t help but to turn towards her once again.

The tallest girl’s wide eyes stare at her as if waiting, wondering, light mahogany in a gentle inquiry, and the brunette smiles again without even noticing.

“Thank you so much for bringing me here, Lis”.

The blonde’s peaceful expression breaks into a toothy smile, and she shakes her head still guiding them both throughout the darkening road.

Ahead, the sun is starting to set, golden deepening low in the horizon, making every single color stand out as if in sudden pride.

“I wouldn’t bring anybody else. Besides, you said that you wanted to come back to Thailand, right?”

Jennie nods, and lets her fingers intertwine with Lisa’s.

“I visited when I was a kid. It’s so crazy to be here again…”

The blonde hums, watching the colors blending in the sky.

“I’m glad that you are here”, she says simply, and listens as the brunette breathes deeply before letting out a deep, heartfelt sigh.

“I’m glad to be here. With you”, the brunette answers.

Something rushes through Lisa’s chest then, a warmth, a bolt, something that she only feels when she’s with Jennie, when the girl lets out words that seem encrypted in her soul, when her cat-like eyes became dreamier, brighter.

Without thinking much about it, enjoying the solitude of her hidden spot – _their_ hidden spot, now- Lisa plants a soft kiss against Jennie’s temple.

Several moments of silence follow. They normally do when they are together, as if nothing else was necessary to say, as if they were connected by something way deeper than simple words.

When the first hint of small stars begins to appear in the now bluish mattress ahead, Lisa speaks again.

“Let’s go back, yeah? I’m sure that mom is preparing something special for you”.

The brunette hums in agreement, a soft smile adorning her youthful expression.

“She likes me”, she mutters prideful.

“Of course she does”, the blonde answers, and moves her arm from Jennie’s shoulders to hug her waist.

They keep walking, now heading towards the tallest girl’s home.

“Not everybody likes me”, the brunette answers, her voice clouded by sudden sadness.

_No_ , Lisa thinks. _She deserves this moment_.

“My mom likes you. My dad likes you. The girls like you. And most importantly, _I_ like you”, she answers, her eyes locking in Jennie’s attentive ones, “I think that you are doing great”.

The brunette gifts her friend a light grin, then, and raises an eyebrow teasingly.

“So, you are the most important one, right?” she inquires, her tone laced once again with the casual contentment Lisa was begging to hear.

“Of course. Who else is more important?”, the blonde teases back, relief making her feel giddy again.

Jennie looks ahead once again, catching the sight of the now familiar house of her friend.

“Right now? Nobody else”, she answers.

Lisa smiles brightly, feeling a joyful rush again, and just falls into quietness, with the darkening sky above them now displaying a repertoire of shining dots.

They keep walking silently, filled with the absolute calm of each other’s company, and both their faces break out in greeting smiles as they see Lisa’s mom calling for them outside her house.

-

Lisa opens one eye and tries to give shape to the dark shadows in the room. With all the lights out, it’s difficult to distinguish anything except for the sharp cut of Jennie’s cheekbone just a few centimeters away from her own face.

They are both lying on mattresses on the floor, occupying all the previously free space in Lisa and Rosé’s room. On the twin beds above, their friends are sleeping soundly, exhausted after hours and hours of turbulent feelings running through their ever active bodies.

Jennie is sleeping too, or at least she seems to be doing so, her back, facing against the wall, raising in a soft, almost elegant peace. 

Lisa observes the hypnotizing movement now with both her doll eyes open, feeling unable to let her mind succumb under the need of rest. She feels so excited, and so proud, and so happy. She wants to hug her members all over again, kiss them on their foreheads all over again, go through the mini celebration pajama party they just had all over again.

Everything was worth it, and now a universe of possibilities lies before them. People actually liked them –Lisa really, really hopes that that is true- which means that her blood, sweat and tears were not wasted.

She forces herself to close her eyes, trying to control the buzzing feeling spreading from her chest to her limbs, and takes a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

It’s pointless.

She’s about to stand up and leave the room quietly to indulge herself with a few glasses of chocolate milk when she hears a deep, raspy voice just in front of her face.

“You are thinking too loud”.

Lisa stares at Jennie absolutely perplex as her cat-like, gorgeous eyes make contact with hers. She’s speechless for a moment, both stunned by the comment and by the way her friend bats her eyelashes to snap out of her sleep.

“I… I’m sorry”, the blonde blurts out, and in the darkness of the room, she can see the faint line of Jennie’s mouth curl into a soft smile, “How did you know I was awake?”, she asks, her impressed tone making the brunette’s grin widen.

“Your breathing. Also, you move your feet when you are either too anxious or too happy”.

Lisa furrows her eyebrows for a moment, and then realizes, without major surprise at this point, that Jennie is absolutely right. 

She wonders on her friend’s attention to detail for a second, and then she focuses on her blurred features again, her expression now relaxed again but her brown, inquisitive orbs still burning into her eyes.

“I hope that you are happy and not anxious”, Jennie comments, her sleepy voice making Lisa’s heart leap slightly. 

The blonde moves her hand to cup her friend’s cheek without thinking much about it, feeling light-headed and full.

“I _am_ a bit anxious, but mostly, really happy”, Lisa murmurs.

Jennie hums as her eyes close, drowning in a sense of bliss.

“Me too”, she agrees, enjoying the feeling of the blonde’s cold touch against her heated cheeks, “I can’t believe we debuted. I’m so proud of us”.

At the sound of the brunette’s soft speech, the tallest girl feels her limbs relaxing, her mind finally becoming cloudy in her contentment.

When her arm begins to ache, she moves her hand away. The action displeases the previously peaceful brunette somehow, who, in an attempt of regaining the delight of their physical connection, scoots closer to the blonde.

Lisa doesn’t think about it. She lets her friend cuddle against her, fit her head under her chin. With velvety, chocolate hair tickling her skin, the blonde feels absolute.

“I’m so happy, Jen. I want this forever”.

Her eyes begin to flutter. She lets the smell of sweet, enrapturing perfume guide her to her dreams.

“I want this forever, too”, Jennie answers, both awake and asleep, both in reality and in fantasy.

They both doze off feeling complete.

-

Lisa stands in dreadful silence with her ear pressed against Jennie’s door. She tries not to burst in, tries to respect the brunette’s now much beloved personal space. She still intends to wait, both patiently and impatiently until the girl decides that she can open up and finally let go all the bottled feelings that the blonde can’t help but to notice every time she looks into her saddening eyes.

So she listens, her friend’s silence making the gaping hole in her chest bigger.

Jennie is so loving, and so passionate, and so hardworking. She simply doesn’t understand. She doesn’t understand human cruelty, bullying culture, the need of making fun of situations that nobody could ever understand.

It hurts her so, so much, and she can only imagine the way it must feel for Jennie, for her tender soul, for her sore muscles. It makes Lisa want to go house by house, cellphone by cellphone, and made them look, made them see how wrong they are, how unfair they are.

But she can’t, or at least not for now, and all she can do is to wait until her friend lets a bit of her shaky defenses down so she can gather her in her arms and cover her with all the praise she rightfully deserves.

Lisa bites the inside of her cheeks uncomfortably. She has to go. She has to leave her alone but there is a much stronger pull that makes her stay quiet, immobile as she waits to finally become useful.

Then, something happens.

Soft sounds begin to spread from Jennie’s room to Lisa’s ear, and it takes her a few seconds to recognize their source. When she does, though, her heart breaks even further. At the other side of the door, she can hear muffled sobs full of a broken sadness that makes the blonde tear up immediately.

She looks at the wood separating her from her friend hating it for a few moments, feeling her hands clench in shaky fists.

She needs to do something. She knows because she feels it from the depth of her soul, from that connection that she feels with her friend and can’t even explain with words. She needs Jennie to know that she’s there, always, ready to do anything in her reach and beyond to make her smile again. 

She opens the door slowly, giving the brunette time to ask her to close it again if she wants to, being mindful of every single sound.

She can only hear sobbing, and when she enters the room, catching the sight of her friend, new tears prickle in her doe eyes. Jennie is there, curled into a ball, her forehead resting against her knees as her trembling body produces the most shattered cries.

Lisa rushes towards her, but stays beyond her reach. 

“Jennie”, she murmurs, careful and sweet, and the brunette’s head snap up so their eyes can meet. There is a moment of confusion, of shame, of sorrow, and Lisa can already feel her friend’s rejection.

“Jennie”, she pleads this time, “please, let me hold you. Let me get to you. Please”. She whispers her words with her hands still drawing fists, feeling helpless and limited, and can only stare at her friend with a begging expression.

The brunette never stops crying. Hot tears still fall from her reddened eyes as she stares at her groupmate with her lips pursed in a thin, contained line. She hesitates once, twice, but with her soul crushed, she can’t help but to seek the warmth rush that only Lisa can prompt in her darkest times.

Still with her chin against her knees, Jennie nods once.

It’s enough.

Lisa moves forwards with her arms wide open, and in the blink of an eye, she is holding the brunette tightly in her arms, letting her face fit right in her neck, and starts caressing her small back with the palms of her hands.

They continue like that for a moment, Jennie crying and Lisa mumbling sweet nothings to her ear, telling her how loved she is, how beautiful she is, how hardworking she is.  
“Incredible”, she whispers, “and so strong, Jen, and so stunning. Fuck them if they can’t see it. Fuck them all. Every single one. You deserve so much more, baby, the whole world”.

The brunette doesn’t answer, but Lisa knows that she is listening. Her hands tighten on her shoulders sometimes, and her sobs become louder when she tells her that she is doing her very best. She breathes in an out when the blonde begs her to do so, when the air escaping from her lugs becomes too worrying, and she actually giggles when Lisa comments on how she would like to pay _them_ a nice visit… carrying at least one very hard object.

That tiny, sparking moment makes Lisa feel hopeful again. She presses a soft kiss against Jennie’s forehead and rearranges her body so she can lie on her friend’s bed, the brunette’s body pressed against hers.

They stay quiet for a moment after Jennie’s cries have died down. Mindlessly, thinking about what else she could do to cheer her friend up, she begins to trace random shapes on her back. After running her fingers in the same way a few times, she hears a soft voice against her collarbone.

“A star”, Jennie mumbles.

Lisa smiles big, happy, and presses a kiss against Jennie’s temple.

She traces another shape.

“A circle”.

Another kiss. Another shape.

“Mmh… a heart?”

Lisa hums.

“Oh… candy!”

The blonde chuckles and presses another kiss, this time on her friend’s cheek.

She lets the pad of her fingers draw another figure. 

It takes Jennie a few tries to get it, and when she does, she inhales deeply and nuzzles her nose against her friend’s neck.

“I love you too”, she mutters.

Lisa feels radiant. She buries her hand in soft chocolate, caressing bright strands with utmost care.

“I will fall asleep, Lis”, Jennie complains. She presses her cheek against her friend’s chest, looking for a more comfortable position.

“Go ahead. I’ll be here”, the blonde answers, secure. She looks up at the ceiling, feeling proud of both of them.

“When I wake up, I’ll be stronger”, the brunette promises. Then, her breathing deepens.

Lisa squeezes her tiny body between her arms and feels herself becoming dizzier, embedded by contentment and the addictive scent of her friend’s perfume.

They fall asleep like that, tangled in each other.

-

Lisa laughs loudly as she moves her limbs frantically.

A few meters away from her friend’s messy dancing, Jennie stares at her in the reflection of the mirror, a soft smile tugging her lips.

She’s sitting down on the dance studio’s room, absolutely exhausted after hours of practicing.

Lisa, however, seems to have stored energy to go on for a few more hours.

She stops at some point, and wiggles her eyebrows at her friend with a teasing smile.

“What do you think huh? Should we change the whole performance and just dance like this?”

The brunette chuckles, half finding Lisa genuinely funny, half dizzy in her tiredness.

“I don’t think I can keep up”, she comments, and the blonde gasps in outrage.

“Of course you can!”

Jennie tilts her head, still grinning at her friend’s antics, and takes just a moment to admire her features. 

Lisa is somewhat sweaty, sporting messy hair and reddened cheeks, but she is wearing a pair of very well fitting sweatpants that Jennie wishes she would be tall enough to wear, and a crop top barely covering her black sports bra. Hence, her abs are in plain sight, and while the brunette guesses that fans would be more than happy to witness after-practice Lisa, she’s inexplicability happy to be the only one in the room at the moment.

_Because she’s ours_ , Jennie considers. 

The blonde has stopped speaking already, moving to the center of the room again, plastering that absolutely focused expression in her face that makes the small wrinkle in her brow appear. Jennie’s gaze follows her movements, smooth and certain, in tune with the music, with the atmosphere, and with Jennie herself in ways the brunette truly believes only Lisa is able to achieve.

Her breath itches when the blonde flexes, and twirls, and smirks just for the fun of it, and something stirs in the depth of her soul. Something that makes her jaw go slack for a second, her heart catch a quicker beat all of the sudden.

When it’s over, the spell settles. Lisa turns around to look at her with puppy eyes again, silently asking for her opinion, and Jennie needs a few seconds to come up with the right words.

“You are… amazing. You know that?”, the blonde smiles at her words, and she can’t help but to feel satisfied, “You know that. You don’t need me to say it”.

Lisa sighs, clearly content, and lowers her still buzzing body down to lie on top of her now complaining friend.

“I know, but I love to her you say it”.

Jennie faintly thinks that she should be annoyed at her friend resting her sweaty weigh on top of hers.

But it’s Lisa. And it’s difficult to be annoyed at Lisa.

“Brat”, she mumbles.

The blonde chuckles, and then lets out a cat-like sound as she closes her eyes.

“I’m your brat, though. It seems more like your problem than mine”.

Jennie bites her lower lip to suppress a smile, and looks at the clock mentally counting the performances she will be able to fit in before Lisa begs her to go buy some food.

-

Lisa blinks rapidly to keep her tears at bay in front of her friend.

Jennie, on the other hand, is crying openly, her soft face, flushed in deep red, buried in between her hands.

The blonde can only look at her, somehow hurt too, and rub smoothing circles against her back. 

They are sitting on Jennie’s bed, a soft golden light entering from the curtain-covered windows, the lighting creating a somber, melancholic shadow against her friend’s expression.

Lisa thinks about something to say, a single comforting word to at least make the sobbing that her friend has broken into diminish a tiny bit. 

Jennie breathes deeply on her own, though, and attempts to brush her hot tears away from her cheeks.

Lisa helps, desperate, placing her palms at the side of her friend’s face, using her thumbs to catch every single sign of distress. She hates it so much, seeing her like that. It makes her want to fix the entire world just for her.

“I… I know that this is stupid”, Jennie mumbles between hiccups, and the blonde frowns deeply, feeling her heart aching in overwhelming empathy.

“Of course not. It’s not stupid”.

“I am stupid, “Jennie insist, “falling like this… after just a few months. I should have known. It started wrong, and-”.

“You are not stupid, Jennie”, the blonde interrupts, and tilts her friend’s face up so their eyes can meet.

The brunette stares only, her eyebrows crunched in pain, her mouth pouted in the brink of a sob. It fills Lisa with dread, and she blinks to contain her own tears again.

“You fell for him. And that’s okay. It should be beautiful”, the blonde continues. The uncomfortable knot straining her own voice tightening, but Lisa fights against it. “It’s… Is there a way…” she struggles, feeling uncomfortable, the idea of strong arms keeping her friend close making her feel weird, but she tries anyways, “Don’t you guys want to try again? I mean, everything is out now”.

Jennie’s tears become fewer. She sighs, closing her eyes and placing her own hands on top of her friend’s.

“No. We are not… it’s not meant to be, I think. We are in different pages. We don’t seem to make it work”.

Another wave of sadness hits her, and she lets out another sob.

Lisa pulls her closer, now allowing the brunette to hide her pained face against her neck. 

It makes her feel better. She will make sure that Jennie is safe, no matter what.

“I don’t even know what I’m mourning”, the brunette murmurs after a short while. 

Lisa listens, feels Jennie’s voice vibrating against her clavicle, buries her hand in deep chocolate curls.

“I mean… he is great, truly, but… I think I will miss the feeling more than anything. Feeling _normal_ ”.

The blonde understands, so she remains silent. She hums, just so her friend knows that she’s there, always there, but refrains from answering. Instead, she presses two kisses against Jennie’s temple.

They stay like that, shattered and soft until the brunette’s breathing becomes steadier again and the whole in her chest stops aching too painfully.

Jennie pulls away slightly, and Lisa stares at her with utmost attention as she leans back to retrieve something from her night table. When she is back, the brunette holds a silver necklace both with care and solemnity.

“Is that…?” the blonde begins, not exactly knowing what to say.

“His. Yeah. It’s time for closure”.

Lisa stares at her friend for a second, feeling pride swelling in her chest. It shouldn’t surprise her, really, given how professional, how hard-working, how strong her friend is that she is taking such sensible steps.

It makes her gaze at her in amazement, nevertheless.

Jennie realizes, and despite of everything, feels a giggle tickling in her throat.

“What? I’m heartbroken, but I can still make good decisions. I’ll probably send it by mail. I can’t think about another impersonal way that is less risky”.

Lisa nods, and Jennie stands. She lends her friend her hand, like asking. The blonde doesn’t hesitate to comply and help her pack the necklace.

Twenty minutes later, with their task already fulfilled, they stand close to each other, letting the moonlight soak their thoughts.

“Chapter finished”, Jennie murmurs.

Lisa brings her friend’s hand close to her mouth to leave feather kisses on her knuckles.

The brunette stares at her for a few intense seconds before smiling.

“You know? You have been with me in so many chapters, I think that you are already a main character”.

The blonde chuckles, feeling a mushy feeling awakening her heart.

“I hope you are not considering writing me off”.

Jennie smiles, the pale light making her cat-like eyes seem impossibly bright.

“Of course not, darling. You are crucial for the plot”.

Lisa grins, all teeth and sparkles, and Jennie presses her friend’s hand against her own chest, right where her heart swirls with warm healing.


	2. Two

They are all hanging out, immersed in a happy bubble.

It was good. Great, even. They just went through the most challenging and yet the most fulfilling performance of their entire careers. The audience was in it, the music was beautiful, their dancing mixed with random jumping just on point.

Jennie feels blissful, and, as she gathers thanks to the loud laughing and bright eyes of her groupmates, they feel likewise.

They are all sprawled in Jisoo and Jennie’s hotel room, exhausted and exited as they’ve never been, still feeling like celebrating after some happy hours spent with the whole team. Rosé is imitating one particular event of their performance that she still finds hilarious, and Jisoo is chuckling against a fluffy pillow as Lisa tries to stifle a snorting sound against her hand. 

Jennie smiles big. She is vaguely listening to Rosé, to her friends’ interventions, but mostly relishing in the warm feeling blooming in her heart. She’s thinking about her groupmates, about how deeply they are rooted in her chest, and how cute Rosé looks using her hand to imitate a mic, and how funny Jisoo is cheering for her like a fan… and for Lisa…

The brunette’s breath itches.

She’s just so perfect.

Sitting against the white wall, her eyes tired but still vivid, a lazy smile lifting up her cheeks and her bangs falling messily against her forehead. She looks so casual, and so relaxed, and yet so, so beautiful that Jennie can’t help but to stare at her almost in shock.

It’s like she is seeing her for the first time, but also like she has been seeing her forever, and she knows exactly what she’s thinking about – that Rosé should imitate her brief speech before the last song-, and how tired she is – Lisa can go on for another long hour-, and even how the new sheets feel against her hand – too rough, the light blonde likes a fluffy, fluffy bed.

The moment passes slowly. Everything around Lisa loses focus in an instant, and Jennie keeps watching in amazement as the silver-haired girl lets her smile grow bigger and shifts, her doe eyes sparkly once again, happiness swimming in her gorgeous features.

_Oh_ , Jennie thinks, and her chest swells.

_Oh_ , with her tummy feeling warm and nice.

_Oh, oh, my god._

Lisa turns around to look at her suddenly, still grinning, and the affection that she finds in her stare makes Jennie inhale deeply.

She _likes_ Lisa.

“Unnie, all good?” the blonde asks her, a faint hint of concern in her voice making the rest of her groupmates alert, too.

“Huh… I… I’m tired, sorry”, she blurts out, feeling a deep blush covering her cheeks under the inquisitive stare of her friend.

_Come on. This cannot be it, right?_

“We should go to sleep, then”, Lisa proposes, turning to the oldest girl.

Jisoo nods, and Chaeyoung yawns as if becoming aware of her own exhaustion.

Jennie turns around, pretending to fix her pillow, trying to give her pounding heart some rest.

“I’m sleeping here!”, Chaeyoung declares suddenly, and rushes to get inside Jisoo’s bed, covering herself to the crown of her head in the process.

“Sleepover!”, Jisoo agrees, and hides behind the sheets with her friend.

Which means…

Jennie turns towards Lisa, who is already grinning half apologetically.

“Not fond of sharing a bed?”

The brunette blushes again, feeling overwhelmingly shy. She is not sure if she can express exactly how appealing the idea of sharing a bed with Lisa sounds to her. 

“Oh, no! I mean, yes. Yes to sharing”.

Lisa stares at her in mild confusion as she reaches to turn off the lights. She moves the sheets to lie besides her, casually as ever, but Jennie can’t feel but think that there is nothing casual in the way her friend’s perfume is making her head swirl.

She feels her friend fitting against her, close because the bed is small but also because they always do that, always cuddle against each other, always find comfort in each other’s embrace.

“Nighty!”, Chaeyoung murmurs, still giggling in Jisoo’s bed.

“Sleep well!” Lisa answers, letting her arms circle Jennie’s waist. “Night, unnie”, she mumbles, just for her friend to hear.

The brunette shivers, expecting to meet a sleepless night.

Instead, she feels the warmth against her back incredibly soothing.

“Night, Lili”, she is able to murmur, before a mix of exhaustion and contentment leads her to a dreamy night.

-

Lisa is excited. She’s trying to focus on the sharp beat vibrating next to her ear and finding the correct notes to create a melody that matches. A part of her mind, always running back and forth in sparky paths, is coming up with possible moves to make up the perfect performance combo.

It’s great, and she loves working on music. She somehow loves the gray pattern in the walls, too, and the black, shiny floor, and the comforting scent that comes from her groupmate just in front of her.

Jennie is working, too. She’s listening to her own production, pressing her headphones even harder against her ears, her cat-like eyes gazing at the desk intently, serious, full of a determination that makes the blonde think that she won’t give up until reaching perfection. Her eyebrows are crunched, wrinkles here and there, and her hair is a bit messy after hours and hours of trial and error.

Lisa thinks that she looks absolutely stunning.

She oozes beauty just like that, in a casual outfit, her jacket thrown on one of the black leather chairs, her legs crossed as she tilts her head up both to stretch and to loosen up slightly, leaving the inner side of her jaw exposed and letting her rich, chocolate hair tickle against her cheeks.

Lisa runs her hand through her own dark locks absent-mindedly. She keeps staring almost as if bewitched. Without thinking about it, she turns the beat into something softer, modifies the melody to match Jennie’s collarbones, Jennie’s sharp eyes, Jennie’s plump lips. The sounds mix in a messy moment and the dark-haired girl feels her heartbeat picking up. She needs to inhale deeper to breath, and yet her gaze becomes misty anyways.

The brunette in front of her sighs, murmurs something inaudible, plays with the keyboard in front of her in coherent, calculated movements. 

Lisa thinks that she looks _impossible_ now, doing what she loves too, leaning further on the desk in a sign that she has achieved something great. 

There is an expecting moment and the tallest girl waits with her new melody resonating against her ears, beating along her heart.

Jennie turns towards her in a whim, bright against the dark room, and gifts Lisa a smile that makes the dark-haired girl feel warmer all of the sudden.

Their eyes meet in a tense moment, they connect immediately, sharp and soft, and the shortest brunette is already speaking before Lisa can even register it.

“… what I just did. I think it sounds good, finally! Wanna hear it?”

The tallest brunette nods, shocked, watching as her friend circles the desk in short, lovely run-like steps to share her own headphones with Lisa. Once the device is in its pace, Jennie plays a sweet tune, beautiful in its rawness, and the brunette can’t help but to turn to stare at her friend, suddenly shy for having her music tested.

It’s like a spell.

The sounds, the flowery perfume, Jennie’s perfect features so close to her, a blush, a small hand pressing against her own thigh.

There is a peak of bliss, there, when the shortest girl squeezes just because, in a sign of affection, and realization hits Lisa like a train.

She’s in love with Jennie.

Her eyes widen and her hands go clammy. She blinks once, twice, the soft tune coming to an end and she knows that she has to put her thoughts together quickly.

When it’s over, Jennie looks at her with an inquisitive stare, coffee eyes full of expectation, a dark shade of insecurity shining behind them so subtly that only the people who are the closest to her could pick up on it.

There is a beat of silence, and the shortest girl shifts in her seat.

“So? Is it b-?”

“It’s heavenly”, Lisa murmurs in a rush.

The brunette’s expression is struck by confusion and then by humor.

“Come on, Lili, you are exaggerating”, she chuckles.

Lisa shakes her head intently. 

“No, seriously. It’s great. I think we should use it. You did a great job”.

Jennie smirks, tilting her head to the side, so evidently happy that it makes Lisa feel content, too. There is a spark, something pure that burns behind Jennie’s teasing eyes, and the tallest brunette has to purse her lips and inhale moderately to stop herself from saying something over the top.

“If you say so. Can I hear what you did, too?”

Lisa nods again. She looks down to hide her blush and shares her own headphones with Jennie. She hits play, lets her own music reach her ears, and feels aware of her friend’s hand now squeezing her bicep. She wonders how she didn’t realize before, how she didn’t notice how perfect she is, how much her heart aches to have the brunette in her arms.

Jennie hums and Lisa feels herself trembling in familiarity and mystery. She ponders on how to hide the way her chest is blooming. Her emotions palpitate so strongly that she wonders whether her friend can actually see them.

She is scared, and she knows that she needs to store her love somewhere else, somewhere far away so it can’t hurt anybody but-

“Lili! That’s so good! Do you think we could combine what we’ve done?

She’s not sure if she can.

-

They hang out a lot, really. Sometimes with the girls, other times just the two of them, lying under the afternoon sun, chatting about nothing, enjoying the calm atmosphere that always prevails when they are together. 

Lisa refrains from being loud about it, as she always does with the parts of her life that she puts the closest to her heart, and Jennie respects and admires the person that her friend grew up to be.

At the moment, the shortest brunette is sitting on the soft carpeted floor of Lisa’s bedroom, holding a wooden box in her hands, picking up on the worn away, golden details on its sides.

“This is really pretty”, she murmurs.

The tallest girl, frowning over the books sprawled in front of her, raises her gaze to meet her friend’s face.

She smiles immediately, happy again just by taking in Jennie’s gorgeous figure, her tiny body wrapped in exclusive Chanel as she stares at the ordinary object with a curious expression.

“That was a gift from my grandmother. Open it”.

The girl pulls the lid off, and is delighted when her fingers gaze a tiny porcelain doll inside of it. She holds it in front of her eyes, smiling, and Lisa can’t help but to let herself stare for a tiny bit longer.

When her cats decided to engage in a fight just besides the shelves in her room, she was not delighted. When the fight led them to throw the piece of furniture, and by extension, all the tiny items of her life stored in them on the floor, she was much, much less than delighted.

Now, with her lifesaving friend grasping each of object with care and asking soft questions about their meaning, Lisa considers that she can forgive her children.

There is something about that exact moment, about the domesticity of it, about the way Jennie was immediately ready to help her with the intimidating mess lying on the floor that makes Lisa’s heart swell three sizes bigger. 

She feels lucky, and somewhat helpless. There is nothing that she can do to avoid being pulled by her friend’s enchanting essence. She has tried, lately. She has tried to avoid hanging out with Jennie, tried to keep herself busy with music, with her cats, with photography. She has tried to find somewhere where to channel the warmth that fills her chest every time she thinks about her groupmate. 

Her attempts, aside from being a complete failure, have only managed to make the brunette upset, who has turned up in Lisa’s apartment at midnight asking with teary eyes if she had done something wrong. 

Needless to say, the tallest girl had to apologize profusely, considering even getting onto her knees, promising her friend that everything was fine and proceeding to buy her tons of ice cream and a few pieces of clothing that she had seen Jennie eyeing in online shops for at least a week. Then, maybe part of her apology and maybe not, she spent an entire day indulging her friend in long cuddling sessions, sometimes watching live performances and sometimes crying over Disney movies. After all that, they fell into their normal hangout rhythm, and Lisa, at least, couldn’t be happier.

Jennie is quite cheerful, too. She has abandoned Lisa’s grandmother’s box and opted to grasp a smaller, newer one.

“What’s this?”, she asks, her eyes finding her friend’s naturally.

Lisa blinks once, as if trying to focus again, and smiles at Jennie’s interest.

“Just a chest where I put some childhood stuff. I haven’t opened in years, really”, she scoots closer but leaves Jennie the chance to investigate for herself.

Jennie grins in excitement, enjoying at the same time the sweet wave of Lisa’s perfume that reaches her nose, and wriggles her fingers playfully before opening the mysterious item.

She chuckles when she sees its content, actually, and blushes almost imperceptibly when Lisa lets her chin rest on top of her shoulder. There is familiarity in the gesture, and unspoken trust, and the shortest brunette swallows a squeal as she picks up a tiny, white rock from inside the chest.

“A rock, Lis?”

“Got it from Switzerland. I thought it was beautiful!”

Jennie laughs again, endeared, and the tallest girl fakes a pout.

“What about this?”, she asks, holding a key chain resembling vaguely the shape of a dolphin.

Lisa hums before gasping.

“Oh, yeah! That was a gift from my first friend at elementary school. She made it herself”.

Jennie puffs exaggeratedly, and turns her head to the side.

“Should I be jealous?”

She hears soft giggles on her side, and a finger poking her ribs delicately. She squirms, chucking, and puts the item on the floor with care.

“Of course not, silly. You know you are my favorite”.

Still smiling, Jennie grasps a stock of papers from the box. She goes through them slowly, letting Lisa explain their meaning against her ear. She finds a picture of the tallest girl when she was just three years old, staring at the sand castle in front of her with the proudest expression in her small face. Then, she finds another of a ten-year-old Lisa in her school uniform, and then a note written by her mother telling her that she is the most beautiful girl in the world. Then, a picture of her parents in their youth, and then, at the very end, she finds a folded piece of paper.

Jennie takes a closer look.

It’s a paper plane.

Lisa leans further, confused for a second, too.

The shortest girl keeps staring at it, plain disbelief overtaking her features. Right at the side of the paper plane, made with utmost care, with every line carefully planned, she can see her own handwriting, or at least the handwriting of her seven-year-old self in a language she doesn’t speak.

Words get caught up in her throat as Lisa lets out a sound of recognition.

“Oh! That’s like, a random paper plane that I found in a park back in Thailand. I thought that it was beautiful, somewhat”.

She traces the lines drawn by Jennie softly, and the shortest girl feels like bursting into tears.

“Do you know what it says?”

“Soulmate”, Jennie answers in a whisper.

Lisa looks at her in a mix of surprise and pride.

“Yeah, have been taking Thai classes behind my back, Jen?”

Jennie rotates the figure in her hands, making sure. Her heartbeat keeps quickening against her chest, and all of that could be a simple coincidence, the world and its crazy turns, but there is a warmth that blooms throughout her body that makes her think that there is something else behind it.

“I- It’s mine”, she is able to blurt out.

Lisa looks at her even more confused.

“You… want to keep it? I mean, sure-”

“No. It’s mine as in I made it. I made it when I was seven years old”.

The tallest girl frowns, and pulls away to stare at her friend better. Jennie misses the comfort immediately, and her body complains with a shiver.

“But it can’t be, Jen. I found it in Thailand, on-”

“The concrete stairs of a park in the middle of Bangkok. There were yellow games on it, and a café with green chairs just across the street”.

Lisa stares at her with her mouth slightly open, her eyes dripping confusion, and then slowly, slowly lighting up in understanding.

“But… this…”, she stares at the paper plane, still firm in Jennie’s hand, and tries to somewhat measure how _probable_ is the fact that she’s looking at the same folded paper her friend made years and years ago.

“I was making it because I was bored at the café. My dad had bought my mom a necklace that said ‘soulmate’ in Thai, and I decided that it was a cute name for my plane. Then, I ate my food super quickly because I was excited to try it. I went to the park, played a few minutes with it, and then just forgot it”.

Lisa takes a deep breath.

“And I found it”.

“And you found it”, Jennie agrees with a whisper.

Lisa looks at her friend right in the eyes. There’s something that goes between them, a spark of energy that makes the tallest girl feel breathless, and she tries desperately to shut down the pure hope feeding her heart.

It could mean nothing, still. It could mean that they are just… meant to be friends forever, meant to support each other throughout their journeys. Or it could be just that, a weird, crazy, casualty that they can laugh about even if Jennie finds her true soulmate in someone else.

So Lisa tries, with all her will, to seem calm.

“Well… that’s such a coincidence, isn’t it?”, she lets out, and even goes for a mediocre giggle at the end of her statement.

It was the wrong thing to say.

She realizes immediately when Jennie’s cat-like eyes lose their vibrancy, when her lips fall downwards with a twitch Lisa just hates seeing, when she leans away from her friend almost as if hurts.

The tallest girl panics further, and gestures to reach her groupmate’s hand to find the magic words that can make her happy again.

Jennie beats her into it.

“I… I don’t think… Do you really think that it is a _coincidence_ , Lisa?”

She sounds heartbroken, and the tallest girl’s chest tightens in pain.

“No, but I’m just-”

“You really think that… this is all we could be?”

Lisa frowns, and gives in her desire of grasping her friend’s hands in her own. She’s thoroughly confused now, because Jennie is making it sound like she has feelings towards her, and there is really no way that that is the case.

Right?

“Okay then”, the shortest brunette murmurs, interpreting Lisa’s stunned silence as a sign of definite rejection.

She feels tears running down her cheeks, pain mixed with humiliation making her blush deeply.

“I’m sorry for thinking otherwise. I just want you to know that… I like you, okay? even if you _don’t_ –I mean, you don’t-, so I’ll need some time to-”

“You like me?!” Lisa asks, squeezing Jennie’s hands, feeling her heart struck by a bolt of happiness.

Jennie gives her a stare that could be considered even humorous if it wasn’t for the situation.

“Are you serious?”, she answers in an almost angry sob, “Of course I like you, Lisa, I-”

But the tallest girl is not listening anymore.

She leans forwards instinctively, unbelievably blissful, and uses her hands to grasp Jennie’s face delicately and join their lips together.

The shortest brunette, even if stunned, does not hesitate even for a moment. They get wrapped in a kiss that makes their skin tingle in delight, feeling so aware of each other’s sweetness, each other’s touch that everything else falls in a blurry, unimportant background. It’s tentative, and exploring, and so incredibly pleasant that it serves as an even stronger affirmation that the forgotten paper plane.

They feel meant to be.

Suddenly, as quick as she leaned forwards, Lisa pulls away, her doe eyes wide in wild contentment but shining with a hint of worry.

“Sorry. That was impolite. I hope I wasn’t too invasive-”

Jennie groans lowly, and grasps her friend by the collar of her shirt.

“Lisa, if you don’t kiss me again _right now_ -”

Lisa is happy to oblige.

She moves forwards again, this time making sure that Jennie has enough space to fit between her legs. The shortest brunette, her reddened lips already playing with her groupmate’s, dives her fingers in Lisa’s dark hair, who hums lowly in appreciation.

The tallest girl thinks, at the very back of her dizzy conscious, that she would very much like to spend the rest of her days like that, with her hands wrapped around Jennie’s narrow waist, with the feeling of manicured nails running delightfully through her scalp. There is something so marvelously exciting about discovering Jennie, and yet so familiar with her taste in her mouth, that the tallest brunette almost considers pulling away to pinch herself so she knows that she’s not dreaming. When the shortest girl tilts her head to find a deeper angle, Lisa stops thinking altogether.

They pull away several moments later. Jennie realizes so as she takes a deep breath and lets her gaze take in the golden light that surrounds them. She looks at Lisa in the eyes, almost bashfully, and the tallest girl stares back at her with her doe eyes glassy.

And just like that, the break in giggles, the ones that are born right in the stomach, and Jennie thinks that no other feeling can compare with the way her chest floats right now, even if her back hurts because they have been making out on the floor, even if her hair is messy because at some point Lisa decided that she wanted to run her fingers through her locks, too. 

It’s beautiful, and she feels tickles in her fingertips, just like when she recognizes that she has achieved something wonderful.

“I like you back, by the way”, Lisa mutters, and Jennie swoons further.

“I got the message, I think”, she answers, but with so much affection swirling in her voice that the tallest girl can’t help but to pull her in a warm hug.

With Jennie between her arms, Lisa feels invincible.

“Would you let me make you happy, Jen?”

The shortest girl buries her head in her groupmate’s neck.

“You make me happy already, Lili”.

Lisa smiles.

“Yes, but... different”.

Jennie smiles, too.

“Mmh, I like this different. Definitely”.

The shortest girl pulls away slightly, but stays so close that their noses brush against each other.

“I will make you happy, too”, she mumbles, and presses a sweet peck against Lisa’s lips.

The tallest girl tilts her head to bring their mouths together again, but Jennie pouts lightly.

“I wanna keep kissing you, too, but you think we can get off the floor?”

With an endeared chuckle, Lisa stands up and helps Jennie to do so as well.

“Couch?”, she asks.

“Couch”, Jennie agrees, taking the safe hand that Lisa offers her.

The golden lights in the apartment turn into dreamy purples.

-

Lisa guides Jennie through an uneven, grass-covered path. She has her hands over her eyes, so the shortest girl can’t see, but she is keeping her close enough to her body for her to remain steady.

“Babe, you are not telling me anything?”

“Nop!” the tallest girl answers in a musical tone. 

Jennie focuses on smelling her surroundings. Nature, definitely. She can pick up on the wooden scent of the threes around them, and the slight humidity of the warm night. She guesses that there are lights here and there, because Lisa shows no signs of hesitation in her steps.

She’s exited, feels a vibrancy starting from her stomach to the tips of her fingers, and she really likes the way in which the tallest girl is holding her at the moment.

“How did you even convince our managers to let us do this”.

“I asked politely… seventy times. The last time I asked it was six in the morning. I guess they were too sleepy to say no”.

Jennie chuckles just when Lisa makes them walk slower. She pulls her groupmate even closer, grinning widely.

“Okay. We are here. Ready?”

The shortest girl takes a deep breath, suddenly nervous.

“Yes”, she mumbles simply, and Lisa lets her hands fall on her sides.

Jennie’s gasp is absolutely genuine.

In front of her, tiny yellow lights surround a small path to a black tablecloth on the floor. Between another dozen shiny spots, the short brunette can see a basket and a bucket holding what appears to be a very expensive bottle of champagne. Beyond, Jennie can see how the faint city shines under them, alive in the quiet night, contrasting wildly with the absolute peace that prevails in the pristine place they are currently standing in.

“Look up”, Lisa murmurs in her ear, and Jennie does so for her eyes to meet with the clearest, starriest sky she has ever seen in her life. The moon seems so big, so white, that it looks as if it is just some fingertips away from her reach. 

Jennie feels herself tearing up as absolute love blooms in her chest, and she can’t help but to turn around quickly to catch her groupmate in a soaring kiss.

Lisa smiles between the kisses, clearly pleased with herself, and the shortest brunette grins in response.

“This is gorgeous, babe. How did you even do it?”

“Mmh, I told you, I asked nicely”, she leaves a peck on Jennie’s nose, “a _few_ times. Let’s just enjoy this, yeah?”

Jennie agrees, of course. She gets closer to the setting slowly, admiring each one of the details Lisa clearly put care into. 

It makes her feel like the luckiest girl ever.

The tallest girl sits down and prompts her groupmate to do the same. They stay close, as they’ve been doing for the entire week since the confession, and Lisa leans forwards to take the food she brought out of the basket.

“I bought this”, she mumbles almost guiltily, and Jennie chuckles before pressing a soft kiss on her cheek.

“What a relief”, she mumbles then, playfully, cat-like eyes swimming in affection.

Lisa understands. She has learnt Jennie like the palm of her own hand, and has always been able to embrace all the highlights of her personality.

So, in response, she merely displays a fake frown and lets out a sound to show displeasure.

It’s hard to be convincing, though, when the shortest girl’s giggle makes her melt into a blissful state.

They eat speaking quietly, taking the time to go over superficial topics, explore deeper questions, stare at each other in amazed silence, and let themselves be soaked by the beauty of the stars above them. At some point, Lisa opens the champagne bottle, indeed very expensive, and pours a glass for Jennie and one for herself.

“For us”, she says simply, and the shortest brunette smiles widely.

“For us”.

They drink for the sake of an unspoken promise.

Lisa moves closer to wrap Jennie in her arms, and the shortest brunette lets her. They look up to enjoy the beauty of the billion dots celebrating the night. Jennie swears that she can even see blue clouds between the stars, and delights in the way the moon seems to be shining especially bright, only for them.

“You know, I’ve been thinking…”, Lisa starts. Jennie gazes down to stare at her smooth features, yellowish shades making her look almost ethereal. “I know that this is too early and I don’t want to push you or anything, it’s just… I’ve been wondering whether you’d like to tell the girls about us or not”.

The shortest brunette hums softly, and fights the urge of pressing soft kisses against her groupmate’s jaw.

“I think they kind of already know, Lili. It’s not like we’ve been... subtle”.

They have certainly not. They have been cuddling and giving each other loving stares for the entire week, both alone and in front of her friends. There has been at least one occasion in which Jennie is sure that either Jisoo or Rosé have caught them too close to be just friendly. 

“No, yes, I know, but I mean… officially. Telling them that we are… dating”.

Lisa struggles to find the right words, and Jennie catches the meaning behind them immediately.

“Oh, so that’s what you’d tell them? That we are just dating?”

The shortest brunette’s voice is light, a teasing tone tingling in her words, and Lisa stares at her blankly for a second before letting out a soft sigh.

“How can you always know what I’m thinking?”

Jennie chuckles, and leans forwards to place soft pecks against Lisa’s pouted mouth. When she pulls back, the tallest girl is giving her a dazed look.

“So…”, she prompts, and the tiny brunette raises an eyebrow.

“I want you to say it”.

Lisa smiles.

“I don’t have a ring, or a necklace, or anything of the sort”.

Jennie rolls her eyes, good-naturedly.

“I don’t want any of those things. I want you. And probably kisses and cuddles afterwards, but nothing else”.

The tallest brunette nods, then, clearly pleased, and grasps Jennie’s hand to kiss her knuckles lovingly.

“Be my girlfriend, please? I’ll be the best girlfriend ever, I promise. I’ll buy you ice cream and hold your hand if you are scared”.

The shortest girl giggles high, delighted, and even feels a soft blush covering her cheeks. There is something about Lisa that is so raw, and pure, and romantic, that it makes swoon hard.

“I’ll be honored to be your girlfriend. In exchange, I’ll accede to cuddle with you many times in the day”.

Lisa leans down to catch Jennie’s lips in a deep, warm kiss.

“Every time I want?”, she asks playfully against her mouth.

The shortest girl feels a jolt in her stomach.

“We can… negotiate”.

“Fair”, Lisa decides, and grasps her girlfriend’s jaw to dive in the kiss.

When they part, many, many moments later, they both try to hide their dizziness.

“Oh, and we can tell the girls when we get back. I’m pretty sure that they have a bet going on”.

Lisa chuckles and proceeds to leave feathery kisses on Jennie’s features, starting from her forehead, moving to the tip of her nose, and leaning down to drag her lips against her chin, too.

“Who do you think will win?”

With her eyes closed, the shortest brunette finds pure joy in her girlfriend’s sweet ministrations.

“Jisoo”, she answers, and lets her own mouth search solace in Lisa’s.


	3. Three

To say that Jennie is nervous would be an understatement.

She’s freaking out.

Inside, of course. Outside, she’s grasping Lisa’s hand under the dinner table, trying to find the strength to put into her mouth at least a tiny portion of the massive amount of food that her mother prepared with thorough detail.

She peeks at Lisa and realizes, just by the way her mouth twitches, that she is as anxious as she is, pale and slightly sweaty, and she wonders whether it was a good idea to bring her to her house to have the conversation lingering in her throat.

Lisa notices that she is looking, of course. How could she not, after eleven years of knowing each other and a whole full year of being together. She can practically read the shortest girl’s thoughts, the insecurities floating in her mind, and she swallows in silent determination before squeezing her hand once.

They can do it. If it goes well, it will be something to celebrate. If it goes wrong, Lisa will be there to gather Jennie between her arms. It’s all that matters to her, really. Jennie’s happiness. Their relationship.

All the rest goes second.

The shortest girl pulls some strands of her hair behind her ear. She listens as her father makes a comment about the sauce. She pays attention at her mother commenting on the quality of the fish. Lisa talks softly here and then, filling odd awkward spaces, and Jennie has never been so grateful of her comforting presence as much as she is in that moment.

When dinner is over, and her mother is already giving her questioning stares over the clean table, the shortest brunette feels like she can’t take it anymore. She clears her throat, visibly uncomfortable, and is slightly relieved when Lisa squeezes her thigh in a sign of support.

“We are actually here because… We want to tell you something. I want to tell you something”.

Her parents stare at her with cautious expressions. Jennie’s mom grasps the napkin in front of her but fixes her eyes in her daughter’s vulnerable figure.

“We… are girlfriends. We’ve been together for more than a year now”.

There is a beat of silence. Jennie feels Lisa’s hand still squeezing, expecting. Her partner stays quiet at her side but very much ready to intervene.

“What?”, the shortest girl’s mother spits out, and she flinches in reaction.

She knows that tone of voice.

“We are girlfriends”, she repeats, feeling her courage quavering before her parent’s looks of disbelief, “We are in love”, she clarifies, stronger.

Lisa nods once, with absolute security.

“In _love_? How can you be in love? You are _friends_. What kind of joke is this?”

Jennie’s mom is speaking frantically while her husband stays at her side, his agreeing silence almost as hurtful as the spiteful words escaping from the woman’s mouth.

The shortest brunette feels cornered, her tiny body trembling with the sudden realization that she is going through the worst case scenario she has practiced for a thousand times but feels unable to face now that is taking place.

Seeing her girlfriend in plain distress, Lisa decides to speak.

“We are in love, Mrs. Kim. We fell in love and now we are together”.

The woman’s face fixes in the tallest girl’s calm expression with pure hatred shading her eyes.

“Shut up. This does not concern you”.

Jennie grows tinier. She lowers her head down in shame and hurt, and Lisa, despite affected too, is having none of it.

“This concerns me because I _love_ her”, she half-screams, low, her voice echoing in the big dining room.

There is a moment of stunned silence. The shortest girl stares at her girlfriend for a second, surprised too. Then, as if revitalized by her support, she stands up with firm legs.

“It is what it is, mom. We fell in love. We are together, and if it is in my hands, we will be for very, very long”.

Jennie’s father speaks next, letting his heavy fist fall on the wooden table.

“We can’t accept it. This is not what we wanted for you, Jennie. You know it very well”.

The shortest brunette stares at him with tears blooming in her eyes.

“This is what I want for _myself_. If you can’t accept it, then I’m sorry for you”.

She tugs her girlfriend towards her front door. Before that, she gives her mother, silent in visible conflict, a last painful look.

“Call me when you can love me for my own decisions”.

With that, they leave.

-

Three hours later she is still sobbing in her girlfriend’s arms.

Lisa is drawing circles on her back, running her fingers through her hair, only standing up from their bed when she feels that the shortest girl needs another glass of water or new pack of tissues.

They haven’t talked much. It’s not necessary. Jennie is hurt and Lisa is hurt to, because her girlfriend’s pain is her own. She knows that she went through one of the most horrifying moments of her life, and that it went _bad_.

There is something else scraping her heart, making her chest feel heavy.

“Jennie”, she mutters when her girlfriend stops sobbing.

The shortest girl raises her reddened gaze to meet her own. She looks so shattered that Lisa tears up, too.

“I’m sorry”, she says finally, the thought that has been weighing in her head finally materializing.

She feels guilty. If Jennie would’ve fallen in love with somebody else…

“No”, the shortest girl says. “Don’t be sorry for loving me, please. Never”.

Lisa stares at her in slight surprise, and then, with the most profound of the passions.

“I will love you forever, then. I will love you so much, Jen”, she grasps her tear-stained cheeks in her hands, and the shortest girl closes her eyes, “I hate seeing you hurt. It makes me want to change the world just for you”.

The shortest girl gifts her a sad smile.

“Well, you make _my_ world better. Is that enough?”

Lisa sobs, and brings her closer so their hearts palpitate against each other.

“You will always be enough. I love you. I’m sorry that you are going through this. I’m sorry that I can’t make you the happiest right now, but I promise you that it will be alright. I will make sure of it”.

Her girlfriend’s words work in ways not even Jennie herself can understand completely. She feels her own body relaxing, her eyes growing heavy. She realizes that she is utterly tired, and she realizes that Lisa might even be right. 

And if it’s not, if it does not get better, if her parents never grow to accept them, well…

They still have each other.

And Jennie still has _herself_.

“Would you cuddle me to sleep?”, she asks in a whisper.

A moment later, she is being hugged tightly by her favorite person in the world. It’s definitely not the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario would be her being without Lisa.

“I love you”, she mutters into the growing darkness.

“I love you with all the strength of my soul”, she hears back.

The gaping hole in her chest will be healed.

-

Lisa squeezes her glass of water tightly as she tries to concentrate on her mom’s animated story. 

Her legs begin to tremble, and Jennie places a warm hand on her thigh in an attempt to calm her down. 

The familiarity of the scene almost makes her throw up.

They are sitting around the dinner table of her own apartment. Her parents are staying over for a week, so Lisa has lent them her own room with her king size bed and has opted to use the living room sofa as her provisionary sleeping place.

Jennie is staying at the dorm, pretending to find her home there, because there would be no coherent explanation that could cover why she is living in her _friend’s_ house while having the clear possibility of buying a wealthy property on her own.

It’s pathetic, and Lisa knows it. It’s pathetic that she is terrified of telling her parents the truth after almost two years of being the happiest woman in the world besides the girl of her dreams. It makes her feel ashamed of herself, and angry, and sad, because she knows that the secrecy is hurting her girlfriend despite of her denial. 

Jennie squeezes her thigh slightly, and Lisa knows that she zooned off for a moment. The conversation goes well, bless Jennie’s natural effect on people, and the atmosphere is so friendly and relaxed that Lisa feels that it is the right moment.

They get up, bring dessert.

Jennie talks about music with sparks in her eyes. Lisa feels like kissing her on her cheek, on her nose, on her shoulder. She feels like looking at her parents in the eyes and bragging about how perfect her girlfriend is. 

She remains silent.

Lisa laughs, now and then, low and forced, and avoids meeting her mother’s knowing gaze.

When they sit in the table once more, dishes and dining room clean, she looks for her girlfriend’s comforting grasp desperately, finding waves of anxiety making her throat feel tighter and tighter.

It is the day. She has promised Jennie so, pressing her small hand against her own chest.

She clears her throat in a broken sound and everyone’s eyes are on her in an instant. She’s sweating, and her foot is twitching, and she loves her parents so much that she doesn’t know if she could take their rejection.

“Yes, honey?”

“I…” she feels a handful of tears precipitating to her eyes, “I’m just… happy to be here. With my favorite people”.

She feels like shit.

Her parents smile in appreciation and her dad even makes a cheerful comment. Lisa bites the inside of her cheeks as an unconscious punishment, and dares to take a look at her girlfriend.

Jennie has a small, tense smile in her gorgeous features, and her gaze, fixed on the black wooden table before her, drips a dejected feeling that has Lisa’s heart breaking in a million pieces.

They make it through the dinner, and the shortest brunette remains fantastically put in a way that the tallest girl knows could only be achieved thanks to year of smiling despite of deep sadness. It makes her feel worse, somehow, the fact that Jennie is dealing with absolutely everything just so she doesn’t have to suffer.

“So, it’s quite late. I better go”, the brunette murmurs, pretending to look at her silver wristwatch.

Lisa’s mother smoothers her in kisses, and her dad engulfs her in a warm hug.

They love her, they really do, and the tallest girl almost cries once again.

“I’ll take you”, she offers immediately.

“I can take a taxi”, Jennie grins.

Their eyes meet in a tense moment, and Lisa decides that she would not let the girl go before apologizing first.

“Please, I’m a good driver. I promise”, she mutters.

Her girlfriend puts her own coat on, considering, and ends up nodding once.

“Aright. I’ll put my seatbelt on”.

Lisa’s parents laugh, and the tallest girl sighs. 

The guilt still weighs on her soul.

-

The car ride is silent.

Lisa struggles to find something to say and Jennie spends most of it staring outside the window. She doesn’t seem particularly tense, or ready for a fight. She seems defeated, shoulders down in such a way that makes the tallest girl want to stop the car and hunt the moon only for her.

_Anything_ , she promised.

And she failed.

They reach the dorm without even realizing. Jennie stares at the building almost as if it was foreign, and needs a second before reaching to grasp the handle. She is about to say goodbye, actually, but Lisa beats her into speaking.

“I’m sorry”, the tallest girl lets out softly. She squeezes the wheel in her large hands, feeling miserable. 

Jennie stares at her girlfriend, her set jaw, her furrowed eyebrows, her broken stare. She sighs, suddenly tired, and purses her lips before answering.

“Do not apologize. This is not something to be sorry for”.

Lisa doesn’t look at her. Her gaze fixed on the road before her as her eyes become more and more watery.

“I’m a fucking coward”, she mumbles, her voice breaking in a sob.

She cries, hard and silent, and Jennie reaches out to run her fingers through her extended arm.

“Lisa, you are not a coward”, she tells her, and the tallest girl stops sobbing to swallow thickly. She finally turns towards her girlfriend, fresh tears coating her reddened cheeks, and stares at her silently.

“Are you mad at me?”

“No”, Jennie answers immediately.

The yellowish lights of the streets don’t allow Lisa to see her as much as she’d like to.

“Are you disappointed?”

There is a beat of silence. The shortest girl considers with her gaze still focused in warm, sad brown.

“I am not disappointed”.

Lisa trembles under her eyes.

“You are sad”, she mumbles.

Jennie doesn’t answer. She stops caressing her girlfriend’s arm and puts her hands on own her lap.

“I need to go, Lis. It’s late”.

The tallest girl understands, even if she doesn’t want to. She lowers her head slightly but nods despite the aching in her chest.

“Okay. I love you”, she mutters.

Her girlfriend gifts her a small grin.

“I love you too, Lisa”.

The tallest brunette feels her lungs giving in lightly. She watches as Jennie leaves the car and enters the building she hasn’t slept in for almost a year now.

When she turns on her car again, Lisa feels new tears falling from her cheeks. 

Jennie has done so much for her, so much. She has faced heaven and hell just for their relationship, has lost friends, has fought with company members, has even been rejected by her own parents. She has been so, so strong and so, so perfect, steading Lisa in every single step, gathering her in her arms every time she felt insecure.

And in exchange, Lisa has done _nothing_.

She doesn’t even deserve her, really. She doesn’t deserve her warm smiles, or her bright eyes, or her soft voice, and she definitely does not deserve the undying love that Jennie dedicates her so tenderly.

Lisa breathes deeply.

But Jennie is her soulmate. They fit together, they always have, and she has planned so many beautiful futures by her side, so different from each other that she knows that the only reason why she finds them all equally perfect is because Jennie is always holding her hand.

And Lisa won’t let anything ruin what they have. 

She’s tired for herself, too. She wants to feel free in her contentment, to share the piercing pride she feels for the relationship she helped building with a beaming smile on her face.

She wants it, both for her girlfriend and for herself, and she doesn’t believe that there is a moment in which she will feel completely ready, but she is definitely willing, and, for her, that’s enough.

She reaches her apartment with her chin lifted and a new, assuring feeling growing in her heart. She enters her house tiptoeing, meeting her excited cats in a hushed whisper. The absolute silence hanging in the place makes her aware of the fact that her parents are sleeping.

So, with her legs still trembling, Lisa sits in the sofa to wait. She knows that even trying to sleep would be impossible.

-

Lisa raises her head in wild anxiety when she hears the soft sound of a door opening.

A few moments later, both her parents come out of her room still in their pajamas, speaking lowly about Louis’ cute snoring. 

The girl stands up in a reflex and takes wide steps to get closer to them. They seem almost scared when they notice her daughter’s presence, and Lisa’s mom is quick to scan her face with an expression tinted with worry. 

“Lisa, love, what’s-?”

“I’m in love with Jennie”, the girl blurts out.

Her parents stare her in stunned silence, visibly trying to shake off their sleepiness to understand their daughter.

“I am in love with her and she is in love with me. We are together. We’ve been together for almost two years and he has made me-”, Lisa’s voice breaks in a feeling of pure love running through her entire being, “she makes me the happiest girl in the world. She’s perfect. Everything I could’ve asked for and I just… we have this connection, mom, like the one you always talked about when I was a child”. Lisa looks at her mother with tears in her eyes, and sees the woman breaking out in a soft sob, too. “Don’t be sad, please. Please, accept us, because I could never let her go. Never. She’s the one”.

The tallest girl finds herself being pulled in a warm, tight hug, and she cries as her parents shush comforting words against her ear.

“How could I be sad, daring?”, her mother asks her, pulling away to look at her in the eyes, “you have found the one. I can see it in your eyes, Lisa, all the love you feel for her. And in hers, too. She looks at you as if you hung up the moon and the stars only for her”.

“I would, mom”, Lisa confesses, “I would”.

Her dad puts his big hands on her shoulders and flexes his knees so he can stare into her eyes directly.

“We are proud of you, Lisa. We know who you are and we are proud of you”.

The girl keeps crying, feeling overwhelming relief turning her body shaky. 

“Thank you”, she mutters, and she is engulfed in a tight embrace once again.

“Where’s Jennie, by the way? We want to hug her, too”.

Lisa pulls away from her parents in a jolt.

“I need to talk to her”, she looks at the door and then at her parents again, her tired doe eyes beginning to shine again.

“Go”, her father says simply, and Lisa smiles.

“I love you”, she says, and left the room hearing words of encouragement.

-

Lisa arrives to the dorm twenty minutes later. She grasps the gigantic bouquet of pink arbutus that she bought in a rush and speeds into the building.

Inside, she is meet with still silence, and her heart drops to her feet until she finds her girlfriend sitting on the living room couch with a worried expression plain in her face.

She walks towards her in wide steps, enchanted by her absolute beauty and the sweetness of her perfume, and she’s already a few mute steps closer when the tiny brunette spots her.

Jennie stands up, moves to meet her as well, looks briefly at the flowers and then into her eyes again, and stops for a moment to take a deep breath before speaking.

“Lis, I’m so-”

But Lisa doesn’t let her finish. She pulls her closer, wrapping her free arm around her waist, and kisses deep and hard, pouring all the passion of her love in the way she puts their mouths together.

Jennie responds without thinking about it, feeling Lisa’s ardour making her own skin tingle.

At some point, Lisa throws the bouquet over the couch to bring her even closer, to engulf her in an embrace warm enough to comprise at least a part of the emotions that Jennie awakens in her heart. The shortest brunette gasps in delight, feeling dizzy, and blissfully anchors herself in her girlfriend.

They pull away moments later, breathing raggedly, and Jennie finds Lisa’s gaze with absolute ease.

“I told them, Jen”.

The shortest girl tilts her head for a second before her eyes widen in recognition.

“You told them”, she answers, and Lisa nods.

“They are okay with it. With us. I… they love you, Jennie. They want to hug you”.

Lisa witness all the emotions that go through her girlfriend’s eyes. She sees the fear, the relief, the pride. She sees the affection she feels for her family and the tears that start to build in her softened gaze.

“Lis…”, the shortest girl murmurs.

Lisa pulls her in for another soaring kiss.

“I love you, Jennie. I love you so much. I felt so bad after las night, I just… I just had to tell you”.

The shorts brunette hums and tiptoes to search for her girlfriend’s mouth. She wraps her arms around her neck, and feels Lisa’s fingertips reaching her thighs.

“Are the girls here?”, the tallest girl asks, drawing her lips against her girlfriend’s jaw.

Jennie licks her lips.

“Mmh, no. They won’t come until late. They are-”, Lisa finds her mouth again, “I don’t know”.

She feels a soft chuckle against her neck. It makes her shiver.

“You like the flowers?”, Lisa asks all of the sudden, and Jennie needs to make use of all her willpower to look over the couch and spot them.

“Oh, they are beautiful. I wish my hands were a bit less busy right now”, she jokes, but Lisa is not close of letting her go. She kisses her again, and then moves to peck her nose, her cheeks, her forehead. Jennie smiles at the display of affection, happy. “What do they mean?”

Lisa pulls away to take her girlfriend’s face between her hands. They look at each other for a moment, full of a pure, fiery attraction that always takes them aback.

“I love only you”, the tallest girl answers, and Jennie waits only a second before pulling her in once again.

“Lisa. My room. Now”, she demands, and her girlfriend chuckles in complete agreement.

Many hours later, Lisa will find herself sleeping for the first time in the day entangled with her lover, heartbeats matching in a secret tune.

-

Jennie is going through a fashion magazine when her phone vibrates on the coffee table.

She doesn’t look at it immediately. After all, her girlfriend is lying right across the couch with her head resting on her lap, and the rest of her groupmates are just wondering around the dorm quietly.

So, calmly, after finishing her reading, she grasps her phone being careful enough not to upset her girlfriend, who is playing the same level of her new favorite game for the fifth time in a row. 

Jennie is definitely less calm when she sees the addresser. She tenses, and Lisa feels it immediately, moving her gaze up to take into her girlfriend’s preoccupied eyes and then cautiously pulling up to find out what’s wrong.

“Love?”, she asks, and the shortest girl looks at her with a scared expression.

“It’s my mom”, she says simply, and Lisa straightens up her shoulders, ready to be there for Jennie.

“Open it, baby”, she murmurs, and the shortest girl nods.

Lisa stares at her closely but silently, and she sees how her girlfriend’s eyes blink in confusion, yet not sadness.

“She wants to see us”, she says finally, and the tallest girl lets out a slight breath. She pulls Jennie’s hand closer to her mouth and plants a soft kiss on her knuckles.

“Let’s go, then, if you want”, she says, and the shortest brunette stares at her for a second before leaning to peck her softly.

“Let’s go”.

-

Jennie takes the first look at her parents after almost one year of complete absence.

Her mother is weeping openly, and her father is trying to contain his own tears.

Right at her side, her girlfriend is holding her hand but staying a step behind, showing support but letting her have a somewhat personal moment with them.

A second later, she is being pulled into a tight, broken hug as her mother lets out shattered sobs against her ear. She is crying, too, she notices, and cries even harder when her father joins the embrace, using his strong arms to pull them both against him, just like he did when Jennie was still a kid.

Lisa stays back, observing. She tries not to break out into tears, too.

“I’m sorry”, Jennie’s mother tells her, and the shortest girl can only listen. “We are sorry, Jennie. We thought we were doing the best for you. It was so hard… but now we know. If it was hard for us, I can’t even imagine how it was for you”.

The shortest brunette still feels hot tears running down her cheeks, but it doesn’t matter. She’s not even angry. She’s just happy to have her parents back.

“I… I was mistaken”, her father intervenes. “I thought that this relationship you two have would only make you miserable, but instead… You look happy, Jennie, and healthy. I was wrong and I’m terribly sorry for it. We thought about you every day, and we are not willing to lose you again”.

Jennie denies with her head, and she sobs happily under her father’s teary eyes.

“It’s okay. I… I forgive you. I just want you two back in my life”.

“Of course, honey”, her mother tells her, and wraps her arms against her shoulders once again. “You will always be our baby. Nothing can change that”.

She feels her dad kissing the crown of her head, and fresh tears well up in her eyes. At some point, her mother looks behind her, smiling tenderly.

“This is our family hug, Lisa. You are family. Come here”.

Jennie doesn’t need to turn around to know that her girlfriend is crying. Lisa gets closer tentatively, and places her hands on the women’s backs with caution. A moment later, however, she is pulled into the embrace fully, and it all becomes a sweet mess of tears and comforting words.

Jennie discovers, in the midst of the hug, that his father’s arms can stretch out to let Lisa fit in, too. 

-

Lisa sighs in contentment as she lets her tense back relax against her girlfriend’s body. She hears a faint giggle in her ear, and she smiles too. She can pick up on the scent of the lavender bath bomb, the sweet candles that surround the hot tub, and the flower petals that Jennie placed with dedication through the whole bathroom.

Most importantly, she can smell the perfume of her girlfriend’s skin, her soft breathing against her neck, and Lisa thinks that she might be melting in her place due to the absolute serenity she is immersed with.

Jennie places soft kisses here and there. She runs her rosy lips through her jaw, her pulse point, her collarbones. The tallest girl tilts her head back in happy submission, and her girlfriend lets a growing smile search for her blushed cheeks.

“You like this, babe?”, the shortest girl mutters, and decides to run her fingers through the soft expanse of her girlfriend’s thighs.

Lisa breathes calmly, feeling her eyes fluttering in pleasure.

“Yes. It’s perfect”, she answers, and puts her hand on top of Jennie’s, still letting them move through her skin. “Thank you”.

The shortest girl hums, attaches her lips to her girlfriend’s neck again, and kisses hard enough to leave soft reddened patches on her milky skin. They will probably have to hide them later, when the reality of their schedules hits them again, but there is not a worry they should think about now.

Now, they deserve to enjoy.

“Loved the-” Lisa gasps when Jennie bites lovingly, “…the other gifts, too”.

The shortest girl lets a soft sound escape from her mouth, and slides her hands up her girlfriend’s torso.

“I loved your gifts too, babe, especially that dress…”

Lisa chuckles, and feels her girlfriend leaning down to let both bodies submerge deeper in the scented water.

“That was a gift for _me_ , really”, she murmurs, and shivers as Jennie’s smile presses against her right shoulder.

“Tricky”, the shortest girl murmurs teasingly, and Lisa grows kind of impatient. She looks for her girlfriend’s hands and guides them to her upper thigh.

“Oh”, Jennie breathes against her ear, in a sound that she knows that her girlfriend adores, and Lisa feels a rush of pure affection that makes her turn around just to stare at her.

The shortest girl stares back, and Lisa thinks that she looks the most stunning ever like that, barefaced with her hair slightly wet and her lips swollen, her cat-like eyes shining with bliss and affection.

Lisa leans up, and kisses her slow and soundly, and Jennie responds while humming under her breath.

“Happy three-year anniversary, love”, the tallest girl murmurs when she pulls away, “I love you like I never thought it was possible”.

The shortest girl smiles big, displaying her cute gums just for her girlfriend.

“Happy anniversary, babe. I love you back, and exactly the same. A soulmates thing, I believe”.

Lisa chuckles, delighted, and with her lips searching again for her girlfriend’s, she guides her wet hands to the warmth of her inner thighs.

-

Jennie stares at the sight before her with wide, amazed eyes. She has been there before, actually, or at least in a similar position, with the Eiffel tower just in front of her balcony, standing bright in the midst of a dreamy night. 

There’s something particularly special about the current view, though. Maybe it’s the fact that she just had the most marvelous dinner with the love of her life. Maybe it’s because she is pressed right against her, with her secure arms surrounding her waist, or maybe it’s just that the stars are shinning particularly bright in the summer darkness.

Maybe it’s everything, the fact that they are taking a nice holiday after another great success, and she feels so happy to have someone by her side, keeping her steady, helping her reach every single one of her goals. The lights of the hotel room behind them are off, just so the dots playing in the sky can be appreciated better. Everything is so pretty, and romantic, and dreamy, and the shortest girl feels like every single moment she spent with her girlfriend is so uniquely special that she couldn’t choose just one to frame in her mind.

Lisa sighs softly against her shoulder, and Jennie smiles.

“Love”, she mumbles.

Her girlfriend presses a kiss against her neck in a sign of attention.

“I am so happy right now”.

Lisa squeezes her against her body.

“I’m glad. I’m glad that you are happy”.

There is something in her voice. A tremble. Something that makes Jennie tilt her head and tear her gaze away from the landscape.

She turns around in her girlfriend’s arms to look at her, and she finds something intense in Lisa’s eyes. Her lower lip is quivering, and her stare has grown watery. She looks inexplicably nervous, but somewhat dazed, content, as if…

“Jennie, I want to make you happy for the rest of your life”, she begins, and the shortest girl takes a deep breath. “I love you so much that sometimes I’m afraid of my heart bursting by the strength of my feelings. It was so obvious for my soul that you were the one since the first time I saw you… I could not stop following you around back then, you know it”. Jennie lets out a slight, watery chuckle and Lisa manages to smile, grasping her girlfriend’s hands in hers. “And now that you are with me, that you light up every single one of my days… I don’t think I could let you go. I want this every day, every hour, every minute. I want to be with you, and to support you, and to respect you as you rightfully deserve. You are wonderful. You are the most wonderful girl in Earth and it would be an honor to… carry your surname, or for you to carry mine. I don’t care, really. I just want you to be my _wife_ ”. 

She gets on one knee, and Jennie, with tears running down her cheeks, feels like she might faint out of love. Lisa reveals two silver, delicate, gorgeous rings, and the shortest girl sobs.

“Will you marry me, Jen?”

“Yes, Lisa. Of course I’ll marry you, you idiot”, she blurts out, leaning down to catch the girl’s lips in a fiery kiss, “I love you so much, so, so much”, she mumbles, and Lisa laughs in sheer glee as she stands up.

“I can’t believe you bought two rings. You remembered”, the shortest girl beams, letting her girlfriend – _fiancé_ \- fit her ring perfectly around her finger. Her hands are trembling, and Jennie finds her adorable and wants to kiss her all over again, but first she wants Lisa to show off her silver band, too.

“As if I could ever forget, baby”, she tells her, still crying.

Once with their matching rings resting in their fingers, the fiancés wrap themselves in a deep, lasting kiss.

Jennie pulls away breathless, trying to convey the turmoil of blissful feelings she’s experiencing in words, but she seems unable to do so. She stares at Lisa with absolute, raw passion, and keeps her close by holding her face delicately.

“I… I love you so much I don’t have the words to express it. It’s more than love. It’s more than _anything_. I can’t believe that I’ll get to call you my wife. I can’t believe how perfect, dreamy, gorgeous you are”.

Lisa smiles big, radiant. She looks at her fiancé with soft eyes until a glint of teasing blooms in her pupils.

“If you can’t say it, care to show me, then?”, she asks, and pulls Jennie’s hand closer to her mouth to kiss her ring once, twice, three times.

The shortest brunette feels a warm wave scorching her skin, and a sudden, deep need makes her fingertips tingle.

“Yes”, she says simply, “I’ll show you”, and finds Lisa’s lips to get tangled in another kiss.

Trying not to smile too much, maneuvering to keep kissing her fiancé and open the balcony door at the same time, Lisa feels her chest swirling with love.

They fall asleep with the sunshine caressing their skin, with their souls entangled in the strength of their promise.

-

Jennie sighs deeply as she stares at herself in the mirror. She tries to straighten the already pristine fabric of her white dress, and she uses her fingers to fix her already perfect strands of shiny hair falling on her collarbones.

She looks beautiful, really, and she’s shining with sheer excitement despite the anxious feeling growing in her chest.

It’s their day, they one they spent months and months planning and dreaming about, and she can’t wait to see the materialization of all the ideas she has been pouring in their planer’s folders. She feels like crying already, and like laughing out loud, but most importantly, she feels like running right into the arms of the love of her life to find solace in her embrace.

It’s a sign of love, Jennie’s mother told her as she was getting reedy. _If you still feel like marrying after the hectic previous hours before the wedding, well, that’s definitely a good start_. She also told her that she loved her, very much so, and once again reaffirmed her absolute blessing and wished the best of the young couple. After everything they went through, Jennie could only sob and hug her in response.

The brunette moves a single strand of her hair one more time before a soft tune reaches her ears. In cue, her father enters the room, tearing up already.

“You look beautiful”, he tells her, offering his arm as he takes in the sight of his daughter wrapped in her wedding dress.

“Thank you”, Jennie answers, trying to keep her own tears at bay, mindful of her makeup, and of the fact that she still has to survive the wonderful shock of seeing her own fiancé in promising white.

They walk slowly, tenderly, and once Jennie is out of the room, she can see her wedding for the first time.

She actually tears up. It’s _beautiful_ , everything set in soft pastel tones, the flower arrangements vivid around the place, elegant chairs making up the little hall she’s being guided through. Beyond, she can see the afternoon sun lighting up the whole place generously, creating the warm, comfortable atmosphere Jennie knows she couldn’t create herself but hoped to be lucky enough to get. She will stop to focus on the details later, but now, her heels keep tapping happily against the decorated little path leading to the simple wooden chapel.

Jennie’s gaze runs through familiar faces, first, as she steps further in the trail, but then, her eyes catch on the sight of _her_ , and everything narrows down to her figure.

Lisa looks so stunning that it takes her fiancé’s breath away. Her dress, slightly creamier, fits just wonderfully against her body. Her dark hair falls in soft waves against her back, and the slight make up in her face makes her look simply ethereal. Without even noticing, Jennie tugs her father’s arm lightly in an impatient attempt to be reunited with her quicker, and he laughs under his breath.

“You will have her for the rest of your life”, he murmurs, and right at that moment, Jennie feels that the rest of their lives is not _enough_.

But she will take it. Especially now, that she can look at her better, and catch on the fiery love blooming in Lisa’s eyes, and the way her cheeks are already stained by joyful tears.

Their gazes meet and light up as if a spark jolted between them, and the shortest girl’s anxiety only finds peace once she’s already in front of her lover.

Lisa dedicates a respectful gesture to her father, brief but sure, and Jennie’s dad lets his daughter’s arm slip from his grasp with the certainty that she has found happiness.

Once they are alone in their bubble, the tallest girl keeps staring at her fiancé with the most profound of the affections. Guiding her to resume their vows, Lisa whispers some words in her ear.

“You are the most beautiful girl in the world”.

Jennie cries harder, more freely this time that she’s made it so far, and squeezes her lover’s arm lovingly.

“You look stunning”, she whispers back, and they both tear their gaze away from each other to somewhat focus on the officer’s words.

It all happens incredibly quick for Lisa. With her lover squeezing her arm, all her previous worries have faded into a comfortable buzzing, and now she can take the time to let the sacred vows engrain into her heart.

When the marvelous, expecting time comes, she turns around to look at her fiancé. Their stares meet, blissful and loving, and Lisa finds herself tearing up once again just at the gorgeous sight of the woman who stole her heart seven years ago.

She listens to the officer’s words with eagerness, and taking Jennie’s hand in hers, she lets herself grin widely. 

“I do”.

She sucks in her breath for a moment, expecting, listening to muffled words, but the warm glow in Jennie’s eyes soothes her down.

“I do”, she says, and Lisa’s stomach jumps in sheer glee.

Behind them, the people the closest to their hearts cheer and applaud. Lisa knows that Chaeyoung is crying openly, and that Jisoo is probably trying to swallow down her own tears, too. She knows that her parents are smiling in the midst of tears, and that Jennie’s parents are holding hands and cheering the loudest.

But right now, all that she has eyes for is her wife.

They pull each other in a soft, sealing kiss, and they have to break it early because they can’t stop grinning like kids. When they pull away to look at each other again, the spring sun has already begun to turn golden, and the purple and pinkish lights playing in the clear sky have started painting everything around them. 

There are unspoken words that go through their unbreakable bond. Words of love, of admiration, of promises. There are sparks and stars, and there is a warmth that fills their chest completely. There is excitement and certainty as they savor the early taste of something new. Their souls, forever entangled, twirl in the euphoria of having found their intended.

With their fingers intertwined, Jennie and Lisa step into another chapter of their shared book.


End file.
